Just finished this new pastel.  I like to include a range of finishes in my work, areas which are highly refined like the hands and ankles can be made more visually potent by contrasting them with areas that are more gestural like the dress, drapes or walls.  The challenge is to bring everything into balance.

Usually I choose to finish areas that are more important to the narrative, faces in particular.  In this case the gesture of the face was compelling to me, with the reflected blue light near the eye and the slashing white highlight near the ear.  It seemed primitive and a bit wild, but quite alive, a bit frantic.  I decided that by polishing it I would risk losing the vitality of the expression.

The decorative marks on the orange wall are a gestural interpretation of writing stamped on the plywood.  The orange is a heightening of the more honeyed color of unfinished plywood, but again I opted for a shift from replication in order to take advantage of its more barbaric color interaction.